China sent two astronauts into space on Monday, October 20th, 2016. Their journey marks e beginning of China's human space flight. A rocket sent a Shenzhou-11 spacecraft with astronauts Chen Dong and Jing Haipeng into space. China sent the rocket at Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center (卫星发射中心). Chen is 37 years old. This is his first space flight. But Jing has done this before—it is his third space flight. He will turn 50 years old soon. People all over the world watched a live broadcast happily.
After two days in Earth's orbit (轨道) 
the spacecraft will link with China's lab, called the Tiangong-2. The astronauts will spend 30 days on the Tiangong-2. They plan to do science and spacecraft experiments and tests for a future space station. China also plans to send a special module around 2018. The main task of Tiangong-2 is to practise the technologies. This is China's first-ever space station. So far, China is making great progress. Until now, China has made five manned space missions. In 2003, it successfully landed on the moon. China hopes to land on Mars by 2020.
